The Affordable Care Act of 2010 includes a number of provisions to study and/or implement value-based purchasing (VBP) programs in the United States’ health care system. These provisions target Medicare payment policies in particular. Today I review a Robert Wood Johnson (RWJ) article which provides an overview of the ACA provisions related to VBP. There […]

The most recent Federal Budget leaves much to be desired. There are spending cuts. The Economist reports that although Mr Obama’s team projects that his budget will cause the deficit will fall “…from a post-war record 11% of GDP in the current fiscal year to 3.1% by 2021. That would stabilise the debt, albeit at […]

Medicare spending changes over time for multiple reasons. First, for any cohort of individuals, these individuals the age as time passes. As their age increases, expected medical expenditure will also rise. Second, the individual will likely received different medical services as the standards of care change over time. The standards of care can change […]

Oftentimes, researchers use dummy variables to determine how observations classified into different categorical groups affect the dependent variable of interest. One drawback with this approach is using too many dummy variables can create small cell sizes, creating an identification problem. Alternatively, using broad groupings for dummy variables may give the appearance that the effect of […]

What type of workers does a boss really value? The answer will vary depending on the boss, industry and specific job each worker has. Today we consider one unique group of workers: polar explorers. These men generally value the following in their peers and subordinates: ‘After all is said and done,’ said Wilson one […]